Which Multimode radio

I am looking for recommendations for a second radio for mobile use. i have narrowed down my choice to 3 units, President Mckinley, CRT 9900 and Alinco DX10. 

Thanks in advance.

President Mc Kinley ,OK I've never owned one myself as I am a old school radio fan, but I've got mates who have and say as a totally legal radio to buy its one of the best and they have all been happy with there purchases.

CRT 9900 from me. Had the radio. 10m / 11m / 12m. Small. 60w ssb. 

Paul.

Hi. 
The President Mc Kinley IS a great radio where you can use the FM40 uk channels and the euro cept band with FM/AM/USB and LSB all on legal frequencies and power. 

Really enjoy mine and easy use menus.

Any update on your selected radio?

I ended up ordering a CRT9900 after a conversation with CT318 Steve.
Thanks for all the advice guys.

From what I have seen, heard and read, next small radio for me will be Xiego G90. The features on such a small, removable head radio, are crazy at that price.

I also like to work local on FM. I miss that on the Xiego. Otherwise it looks like a fine piece of equipment.

73

The Xeigu G90 does do FM after a firmware update.

As much as I hate to be the bad news bear, the simple truth is none of the 'exports' are that great, low grade much of a muchness, so I'm not even going to suggest any 'CB' export or otherwise - I'll simply say that given none of the 'exports' are legit certified anyhow, so stop pretending somehow and look at alternative ways of using 26-30 MHz using a better grade of kit entirely. Sure I have an AT series rig I use, mostly for listening freeing up my ham gear from doing 10/11M snooping, but I use older and highly optimised (as in workshop optimised using proper instruments and rebuilt to worthy 10m operational grade purity levels) old monobanders and be done with it for legit working.

My honest second set for mobile or semi-manpack source for non-SSB ops would be a TYT TH-9800 quad bander and just preset all the memories with the various channelized blocks on 27 MHz and Tx-Inhibited on anything else it can cover also in memory presets and lock into preset mode.

At least it's HF section providing the 26-30 MHz part of the quad band will be of a much better grade to start with (given what the radio is essentially a Chinese copy of on many levels). Even a brand matchef quad band vertical for the car is cheap and accessible. If you're going to push the veil of legitimacy, do it with something that's actually higher spec on it's HF side from the outset. At least the purity of output has a hope of being better and based on the one I had here on loan, better receiver on 11/10 than any 'CB' or export set - more like the FT-818 as a receiver in fact (but still a long way short of that ultimately).

In fact, if you dig deep, you can actually get a fascia you swap remote head guts into, that looks more CB or Pro LMR than it's Yaseu ham/LMR style appearance.

Now for true multimode 26-30mhz high quality potential, mobile or otherwise, that's semi-portable in scope, you won't see change much out of £500 unless you're gifted such a piece of gear (such as an unwanted FT-747GX with the very rare FM option fitted). But that's really a transportable portable. About the nearest multimode that's true mobile/portable/shoulder worn manpack light and compact of quality, at the price of best case 5W Tx output, would be a £700 odd FT-818, a used example of or a used FT-817ND, but those have very high resale prices and scarcity of used market availability - reflecting how loved they actually are.

But I'll say, as a 26-30Mhz AM/FM unit with far wider listening scope, the TH-9800 wins on value easily vs any export option and probably to many on all round quality - I've actually decided to add one to my permanent collection now i've thought it through and mentioned it as a possible choice on here.

That said, for me, easier to live with as I can 100% justify it's presence and possession of without issue.

The crt9900 is a great little radio, on 11m worked S. America. Europe, Asia, all on just radio power. Now using it 10m with good results. Never had a bad audio report, even with standard mic. Cost £150 new, all radios have good and bad points, even top end. Its a hobby of trial  and error .enjoy your radio.
good luck
regards .

A5H5ATAN1C wrote:

As much as I hate to be the bad news bear, the simple truth is none of the 'exports' are that great, low grade much of a muchness, so I'm not even going to suggest any 'CB' export or otherwise - I'll simply say that given none of the 'exports' are legit certified anyhow,  so stop pretending somehow and look at alternative ways of using 26-30 MHz using a better grade of kit entirely.  Sure I have an AT series rig I use, mostly for listening freeing up my ham gear from doing 10/11M snooping, but I use older and highly optimised (as in workshop optimised using proper instruments and rebuilt to worthy 10m operational grade purity levels)  old monobanders and be done with it for legit working.

My honest second set for mobile or semi-manpack source for non-SSB ops would be a TYT TH-9800 quad bander and just preset all the memories with the various channelized blocks on 27 MHz and Tx-Inhibited on anything else it can cover also in memory presets and lock into preset mode.

At least it's HF section providing the 26-30 MHz part of the quad band will be of a much better grade to start with (given what the radio is essentially a Chinese copy of on many levels).  Even a brand matchef quad band vertical for the car is cheap and accessible.  If you're going to push the veil of legitimacy, do it with something that's actually higher spec on it's HF side from the outset.  At least the purity of output has a hope of being better and based on the one I had here on loan, better receiver on 11/10 than any 'CB' or export set - more like the FT-818 as a receiver in fact (but still a long way short of that ultimately).

In fact, if you dig deep, you can actually get a fascia you swap remote head guts into, that looks more CB or Pro LMR than it's Yaseu ham/LMR style appearance.

Now for true multimode 26-30mhz high quality potential, mobile or otherwise, that's semi-portable in scope, you won't see change much out of £500 unless you're gifted such a piece of gear (such as an unwanted FT-747GX with the very rare FM option fitted).  But that's really a transportable portable.  About the nearest multimode that's true mobile/portable/shoulder worn manpack light and compact of quality, at the price of best case 5W Tx output, would be a £700 odd FT-818, a used example of or a used FT-817ND, but those have very high resale prices and scarcity of used market availability - reflecting how loved they actually are.

But I'll say, as a 26-30Mhz AM/FM unit with far wider listening scope, the TH-9800 wins on value easily vs any export option and probably to many on all round quality - I've actually decided to add one to my permanent collection now i've thought it through and mentioned it as a possible choice on here.

That said, for me, easier to live with as I can 100% justify it's presence and possession of without issue.

Not really sure how this relates to the OPs question to be honest.

I like my 9900 even though I have a couple of wide-banded HF sets which cover the band I like using a C.B. to chat to others on the C.B. I know I will do better on the Yeasu with its built in speech processor etc on 11M SSB but I like to have the dedicated C.B. there hooked up to a twig all the time and I feel its a bit more of a challenge when you do make the DX contacts on the little set to.  I haven't had it on 10M yet but I hear others discuss some sporadic action on their quite recently so I look forward to making contacts there with it too.

Aren't these digital radios great?  Does FM after a firmware upgrade...that's what I like to hear!

I'm in same boat as they say !
Looking at Lincoln 2 plus and cry ss9900.
Some say audio on great on Lincoln 2

I got big fingers hence why I was looking at Lincoln but for mobile CB use in nissan juke the ss9900.
Won't be mounting any CB as too tight in juke so would leave everything like power and antenna but disconnect the CB and whip when not using.
I got to use friends ss9900 and was impress with contacts he made and how clear the audio was.

Like the Lincoln too.